Battery News
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Battery Ventures Closes $750 Million Fund
Fund VIII will Focus on Technology and Technology-enabled Businesses at
all Stages;
Firm Promotes Three Partners to General Partner
WALTHAM, MA and MENLO PARK, CA; July 9, 2007 – Battery Ventures, a venture capital and private equity firm focused on investing in technology and innovation worldwide, today announced that it has closed its eighth fund, BV VIII, at $750 million. This fund brings total committed capital in Battery’s eight funds to $2.9 billion. In conjunction with the fund closing, Battery also announced today that Neeraj Agrawal, Michael Brown and Sunil Dhaliwal have been promoted to General Partner. For more detailed information on the personnel news, please refer to today’s related press release: Battery Promotes Three to General Partner
The strategy for BV VIII will be a continuation and expansion of the investment strategy the firm has employed since its founding in 1983. Battery invests in driven entrepreneurs and high-potential businesses that are diverse along three axes:
- Stage/deal type: Battery invests at all stages – seed/early and late stage venture capital financing, as well as buyouts, take-privates, PIPEs and rollups.
- Technology and related sectors: Key investment sectors are – Software, Infrastructure Technologies, Communication Services, Semiconductors and Components, Internet and Digital Media, Financial Services and Tech-enabled Businesses, Clean Tech and Advanced Materials.
- Geography: The firm invests worldwide, with the majority of investments in North America, Israel and India.
“This is the right size fund for our investment strategy and organizational structure,” said Battery General Partner Tom Crotty. “We’re pleased to have three new GPs and the ongoing commitment of many of our long-standing LPs. $750 million gives us the flexibility to keep doing smaller, earlier stage deals but to also write larger checks for growth equity and buyout deals.
“We are beginning to see the hard work of the past several years finally begin to pay off for previous funds,” Crotty continued. “The M&A market for technology remains strong, and the IPO market has strengthened for venture-backed growth companies. The mature inventory in our portfolio has been able to take advantage of the healthier liquidity markets, and we are finding exits for investments we made in ’99, 2000 and 2001.”
The firm’s recent liquidity events include:
- Five IPOs in the past 18 months: Cbeyond (NASDAQ: CBEY), MetroPCS (NYSE: PCS), Omniture (NASDAQ: OMTR), Optium (NASDAQ: OPTM) and Veraz Networks (NASDAQ: VRAZ).
- Numerous profitable acquisitions, including: Broadbus by Motorola; CipherTrust by Secure Computing; Kashya by EMC; OutlookSoft by SAP; ProfitLogic by Oracle.
The BV VIII General Partners are: Neeraj Agrawal, Michael Brown, Tom Crotty, Sunil Dhaliwal, Rick Frisbie, Morgan Jones, Ken Lawler, Roger Lee, Mark Sherman, Dave Tabors and Scott Tobin. Limited Partners in BV VIII consist mainly of long-time investors in previous funds, including blue chip corporations, endowments, pension funds and fund of funds.
About Battery Ventures
Since 1983, Battery has been investing in technology and innovation worldwide. The firm partners with entrepreneurs and management teams across technology sectors, geographies and stages of a company’s life, from start-up and expansion financing, to growth equity and buyouts.
Battery has supported many breakthrough companies around the world, including: Airespace (acquired by Cisco), Akamai Technologies (NASDAQ: AKAM), Cbeyond (NASDAQ: CBEY), LIFFE (acquired by Euronext), and Neoteris (acquired by Netscreen). Its current portfolio includes emerging firms such as Advent Solar, BladeLogic, Lion Cells, Netezza, Spot Runner, and Tejas Networks, as well as more established companies such as ITA Software, Consona Corporation, MetroPCS (NYSE: PCS) and Nova Analytics.
From offices in Boston, Silicon Valley and Israel, Battery manages nearly $3 billion in committed capital, including its current fund of $750 million. For more information, visit www.battery.com.
Contacts:
Karen Bommart or Angela Doucette
Battery Ventures
Ph: 781-478-6600
kbommart@battery.com
adoucette@battery.com